An exhibition of
art inspired by Michael Jackson opened Tuesday in Helsinki with organizers
insisting it was not a "celebration" of the singer, still dogged by
abuse allegations a decade after his death. "Michael Jackson: On the
Wall" brings together old and new works depicting the iconic pop star and
his impact on popular culture, by artists including Andy Warhol, American
photographer David LaChapelle and British potter Grayson Perry. The show of 90
works first hung in London's National Portrait Gallery in 2018 to widespread
critical acclaim. It then toured in Paris and Bonn before coming to
Helsinki.  The German and Finnish shows
come after a new raft of allegations that Jackson groomed and sexually assaulted
children, detailed in the 2018 documentary "Finding
Neverland".

The exhibition
will nevertheless run in the Finnish capital "as planned", organizers
said, with a text at the entrance acknowledging that "current
conversations may have changed the way the exhibition is interpreted".
"We can't shy away from these difficult subjects and we of course condemn
all kinds of abuse," Arja Miller, chief curator at Espoo Museum of Modern
Art, told AFP. "But we also want to provide a platform for open discussion
and for artists' voices," she said. "This exhibition and these
artists are not celebrating Michael Jackson, but analyzing his meaning in our
culture," Miller added.

Sponsors scared
away

Miller said some
organizations refused to sponsor the exhibition over concerns about the
controversies surrounding the singer, despite not having seen the show.
"I'm convinced that if everyone would have seen the exhibition they'd
gladly be our partner because the exhibition is so diverse," she told AFP.
Many of the Jackson-inspired works veer between the gaudy and the grotesque,
including an oversized golden statue of the megastar with his pet chimpanzee,
Bubbles, by Paul McCarthy.

Elsewhere, a
life-size portrait by Kehinde Wiley, commissioned by Jackson himself shortly
before his death in 2009, features the star in jeweled armor on horseback
surrounded by cherubs, after a portrait by Rubens of King Philip II of Spain.
The Romanian artist Dan Mihaltianu's installation draws on the impact of Jackson's
seminal 1992 concert in post-Communist Bucharest, using newspaper photos
alongside concert footage.

Mihaltianu said
that interest in his piece, from 1994, has grown again every time Michael
Jackson has hit the headlines over the years. "He will stay as an icon
somehow, you cannot just erase him," Mihaltianu told AFP. "I remember
already when he died, people were kind of, 'OK, now he's got to rest in peace.'
But 10 years later, it's a new story coming up." - AFP